The present invention relates to a cabinet for conveying medicine which is used when conveying medicine.
Conventionally, when conveying medicine, for example, from a dispensary to each sickroom in a hospital ward, it is a known arrangement that the medicine is put in a bucket which is then stored in a cabinet provided with casters and that the cabinet with the medicine buckets stored in multistage is conveyed.
However, as the cabinet described above has a large space occupied by itself, a storage space for the cabinets must be provided in the case that no medicine is conveyed. The more the number of the cabinets, the larger the storage space that is needed for the cabinets.
If all of the medicine buckets have a uniform size, there is a disadvantage that when the number of the medicines to be prescribed to a patient is large, all of the medicines can not be put in the medicine bucket. Conversely, when the number of medicines is small, the redundant space within the medicine bucket increases. Thus, usually, various sizes of medicine buckets have been prepared, which makes the construction of the cabinet for holding such medicine buckets complicated.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cabinet for conveying medicine which occupies a small space when not in use and which can hold the various sizes of medicine buckets irrespective of the simple construction.
The present invention, as a means for solving the aforementioned object, provides a cabinet for conveying medicine in which a plurality of medicine bucket supporting members for supporting in multistage medicine buckets in which medicines are put are provided on a movable base member with casters.
The plurality of medicine bucket supporting members are juxtaposed on the base member with a predetermined distance therebetween.
The opposite faces of the plurality of medicine bucket supporting members are provided with support portions for supporting both side edges of the medicine bucket.
The plurality of medicine bucket supporting members are positioned so that, when the plurality of cabinets are juxtaposed with all of the medicine buckets removed, the plurality of medicine bucket supporting members do not interfere with the base member of the adjacent cabinet.
Whereby the medicine bucket supporting members of each cabinet can be disposed so as to abut against each other.
According to the construction above, with all of the medicine buckets removed, the plurality of cabinets can be aligned with each other so that the medicine bucket supporting members of each cabinet can be disposed so as to abut against each other. Thus, even if the number of the cabinets increase, the space occupied by themselves never increases.
Preferably, the plurality of medicine bucket supporting members may be arranged so that the distance therebetween can be adjusted. Thus, even medicine bucket having different widths can be supported.
Preferably, the plurality of medicine bucket supporting members may be pivotably provided with respect to the base member. Thus, when the plurality of cabinets are aligned with each other so that the medicine bucket supporting members of each cabinet can be disposed so as to abut against each other, the medicine bucket supporting members can be pivoted, and thereby the space occupied by the cabinets can be further diminished.
Preferably, an engagement mechanism for disabling to remove the medicine buckets supported on the support portions of the plurality of medicine bucket supporting members may be provided and the engagement mechanism may be arranged so as to be intensively operated from one particular position, which allows easy manipulation.